Arcade Gallery
Through 3/7 Discarded: The Afterlife of Everyday Electronics. This group exhibition examines the cultural and material ramifications of America’s insatiable desire for the latest technological products. 618 S Michigan. colum.edu/deps
Catherine Edelman Gallery
3/7–4/26 Robert and Shana Parke Harrison: Gautier’s Dream. Artist duo Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison collaborate on their latest photo series, which is inspired by the 19th-century French poet and playwright Théophile Gautier. It’s as charming as a sepia-toned novella. 300 W Superior. edelmangallery.com
Center for Book and Paper Arts
Through 4/5 Social Paper considers how artists have used handmade paper as a political tool. 1104 S Wabash. colum.edu/Academics/Interarts/book-and-paper
Comfort Station
3/4–30 The Post Family. Seven graphic designers came together in 2007 to form an art/design cooperative, branding themselves the Post Family. Sometimes they make and exhibit design-inspired art together, such as in this show of experimental, irreverent work. Comfort Station, 2579 N Milwaukee. comfortstationlogansquare.org
Corbett Vs. Dempsey
Through 3/15 Molly Zuckerman-Hartung: Violet Fogs Azure Snot. Rising local art star Zuckerman-Hartung brings renewed energy to the genre of abstract painting with a rebellious, intelligent approach. 1120 N Ashland. corbettvsdempsey.com
Document
3/14–4/19 Selina Trepp. Trepp inserts herself among her paintings and sculptures—using her own body to accompany a painted head, for example. It’s playful but smart.
Through 3/8 Victoria Fu. San Diego filmmaker and photographer Victoria Fu has her first solo exhibition in Chicago, just a month before her work heads to the Whitney Biennial in New York. The artist has emerged amid critical acclaim for her colorful, abstract photography and her enigmatic short videos. For this show, she exhibits a new video installation.
845 W Washington. documentspace.org
Gage Gallery
Through 5/10 Matt Eich: Carry Me Ohio. A live zebra standing in the snow, a fire burning in a trash can—these are just a few of the striking images that photographer Matt Eich captured during a three-year project documenting southeastern Ohio and its communities. Once the region was supported by mining industry jobs, but now over a quarter of its residents live below the poverty line. Eich’s photos attest to human suffering but also survival. Roosevelt U, 18 S Michigan. roosevelt.edu/gagegallery
Gallery 400
Through 3/1 Ghost Nature. Filmmakers and visual artists team up to illustrate the capriciousness of nature. 400 S Peoria. gallery400.uic.edu
Hyde Park Art Center
Through 5/18 Samantha Hill: Topographical Depictions of the Bronzeville Renaissance. Black culture flourished in this South Side neighborhood from the 1920s through the 1950s, giving rise to important new forms of music, art, literature, and activism. Artist-in-residence Samantha Hill maps this cultural renaissance on the Hyde Park Art Center’s walls, using oral histories, photos, artifacts, and an interactive component that invites viewers to participate in the story. 5020 S Cornell. hydeparkart.org
Linda Warren Projects
Through 4/5 Chris Cosnowski and Chris Uphues. Two painters who know how to please a crowd show new works in their signature styles: Cosnowski’s shiny hyperrealism and Uphues’s happy-go-lucky designs. 327 N Aberdeen. lindawarrenprojects.com
The Mission
3/7–4/19 Jeroen Nelemans. In his third solo show, Chicago artist Jeroen Nelemans continues his deconstruction of the JPEG, presenting artworks made with, on, and of LCD monitors. 1431 W Chicago. themissionprojects.com
Monique Meloche Gallery
Through 3/29 Heidi Norton. The artist known for encasing living houseplants within her sculptures debuts new work for her second solo exhibition at the Wicker Park gallery. For this show, Norton experiments with photographic tools and techniques, such as temperature-reactive (thermochromic) film and an endoscope video camera, as well as custom-cast and etched-glass objects. Also showing: Pedro Vélez in the window gallery. 2154 W Division. moniquemeloche.com
Perimeter Gallery
3/7–4/12 Margaret Ponce Israel. When the NYC artist was killed in a bicycle accident in 1987, she left behind a trove of imaginative ceramic sculptures and mixed-media paintings. River North’s Perimeter Gallery picked up the artist’s estate and continues to present Israel’s quirky objects, such as painted papier-mâché chairs made for chickens. Russian ceramicist Sergei Isupov also exhibits new work. 210 W Superior. perimetergallery.com
Prospectus Art Gallery
3/14–5/4 Carlos Barberena. Printmaking takes deep skill, and self-taught Nicaraguan artist Barberena has it. In the highly detailed style of master printmakers Dürer and Posada, Barberena tells a political story with horror and humor. His linocuts poke fun at the demise of Western capitalism. 1210 W 18th. prospectusartgallery.wordpress.com
Rhona Hoffman Gallery
Through 4/5 Deana Lawson and Derrick Adams. What makes an African American body “black”? Two young New York contemporary artists explore this question. Lawson strips her made-up models and poses them in intimate domestic settings to confront the topic of beauty. Adams creates generalized portraits using collage techniques to suggest the socially constructed nature of identity. 118 N Peoria. rhoffmangallery.com
Riverside Arts Center
3/30–4/26 Noelle Allen: Osmia. With colorful casting materials such as wax and resin, Noelle Allen uses interesting forms from her garden and her art studio to create skin-like membranes. She then sculpts them into unique shapes that evoke new growth waking beneath melting, dirty snow. 32 E Quincy, Riverside. riversideartscenter.com
Schneider Gallery
3/7–4/26 Christian Weber and Gayle Stevens. In conjunction with a new book release about explosions, NYC photographer Weber displays large-scale shots of just that: explosions, their fiery, phantasmic bodies evanescent in the black night air. Also showing: Gayle Stevens’s tintype photographs. 230 W Superior. schneidergallerychicago.com
Threewalls
3/7–4/12 Harold Mendez: But I Sound Better Since You Cut My Throat. Artist Harold Mendez touches on topics of racial identity, national borders, and memories like ghosts. 119 N Peoria. three-walls.org
Western Exhibitions
3/14–4/19 Paul Nudd. The illustrator examines the line between the exquisite and the creepy with his larger-than-life drawings of bodies composed entirely of microbial relatives. The show might be good immersion therapy for germophobes. 845 W Washington. westernexhibitions.com
Woman Made Gallery
3/7–4/17 Stacee Kalmanovsky. This emerging sculptor won first place in a juried exhibition and was awarded this solo show. Her work, which often includes plastic bags, rags, and other found objects, may appear disposable, but she has a gift for seducing metaphysical import from overlooked materials. The show accompanies her new book of poetry, The Secret Intelligence of Dumb Objects. 685 N Milwaukee. womanmade.org